Astronomers have discovered a direct connection between the explosive deaths of massive stars and the formation of black holes and neutron stars, which are the most compact and mysterious objects in the universe. Using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT) and ESO’s New Technology Telescope (NTT), two teams were able to observe the aftermath of a supernova explosion in a nearby galaxy, providing evidence for the enigmatic compact object it left behind.
In the past, astronomers have found several clues suggesting this sequence of events, such as the discovery of a neutron star within the Crab Nebula, the gas cloud left behind by a star that exploded almost a millennium ago. However, witnessing this process in real-time had never been achieved before, making direct evidence of a supernova leaving behind a compact remnant elusive.
“Our work establishes a direct link,” says Ping Chen, a researcher at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel, and the lead author of a study published on Jan. 10 in Nature and presented at the 243rd American Astronomical Society meeting in New Orleans, U.S.
The breakthrough for the researchers came in May 2022 when South African amateur astronomer Berto Monard discovered the supernova SN 2022jli in the spiral arm of the nearby galaxy NGC 157, located 75 million light-years away. Two separate teams focused on studying the aftermath of this explosion and found it to exhibit a unique behavior.
Typically, the brightness of most supernovae gradually fades away over time, showing a smooth decline in the explosion’s “light curve.” However, SN 2022jli behaves differently. As its overall brightness decreases, it oscillates up and down approximately every 12 days.
2024-01-12 06:00:05
Article from phys.org rnrn